Ravens Win, Scranton Shirt Makers Go To Work

SCRANTON — If you see someone wearing a World Champion Baltimore Ravens t-shirt, there’s a good chance it was printed right here in our area.

Workers at a Scranton company went to work printing the t-shirts right after the game ended.

The scene was Kevin’s Wholesale, on Capouse Avenue in Scranton, just after game time in New Orleans. Workers were printing shirt after shirt after shirt, all with a new World Champion Baltimore Ravens logo.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and it’s nothing but go, go, go,” said Jim Pettry.

Kevin’s production manager Jim Pettry explains that Kevin’s had a contract with Nike to produce tee shirts, but only if Baltimore won.

If the 49ers walked away with the Vince Lombardi trophy, Nike would have used printers closer to San Francisco.

Because the game came down to the wire, the people at Kevin’s couldn’t go to work until the very end of the game.

“It’s tense at the end of this thing and it’s tense at the beginning with the printing, so it’s tense all over,” laughed Pettry.

The first t-shirts left the Capouse Avenue facility while Ravens fans were still celebrating in the streets.

“All these shirts are going to a distribution plant in Maryland. We’ve been contracted to produce these shirts, and that’s what we’re doing,” Pettry added.

The finished product is bold Ravens purple, with “Rings Don’t Lie” in huge letters, celebrating the second Super Bowl in Ravens history.

Money for the workers, money for the business, but not everyone here is happy.

“This should be the winner,” said a Niners fan, showing his shirt.

Team loyalty took a back seat to getting the job done.

The workers had a very productive morning. From the time the final gun sounded in New Orleans, until early Monday, they printed 6,000 t-shirts.

They were loaded up on tractor-trailers, and shipped off to help happy Baltimore fans celebrate a Super Bowl victory.